The Gift
by RebbieChan
Summary: Alana finds an unexpected gift. Marlana


Alana, can you explain to me what this is?" Jack stood in the center of his office, pointing at something sitting on his desk. Crawford was known for his signature 'I'm mad and you better fix it' look, especially lately with Hannibal on the run who knows where in Europe and Will just short behind, and today was no exception.

She supposed it was good, or incredibly bad, timing that brought her in to the FBI headquarters that morning, else she wouldn't have seen whatever it was Jack so wished her to remedy. She took a look at the box from the entryway. Just a simple brown box with holes in the top for air. "I don't know, She said before stepping closer, "What is it?"

"It's addressed to _you_." He said it as if it would mean something to her, and it did. After what happened with Hannibal, Alana was not to keen about giving out her personal information if she could. Instead of placing her home information for any mail or contact with patients of potential ones, she gave out Jack's office. And, as she only had one patient right now, it could only be from one person.

"Verger." Alana looked at the box with greater suspicion. Air holes, so there was likely something alive in there or something that had been alive at one point.

"Have you opened it?" She asked, looking up from the box to Jack.

"I waited for you."

"Should we have the lab open it, to be safe?"

Jack shrugged, "Might be for the best. You're his doctor, what's the likelihood of this being something good?"

Alana picked up the phone receiver. "Not likely."

"Well whatever is in there is moving," Zeller said, placing the box on one of their lab tables.

Jimmy Price pulled on some surgical gloves. "So it's alive."

Alana glanced between the two of them as the put on masks and goggles on the off chance that it was something poisonous. which would only surprised her by it being so obvious. Mason liked to savor others suffering, make his tricks and torture elaborate and played out. She was just trying to piece together what it was, if anything, that had caused him to do this. Was it her relationship with Margot? Had he sensed she was using him? Or did he simply decide that day that he felt like it?

Jack stood just behind her with about as much stoic apprehension as he could allow. He nodded at the two to proceed.

Carefully the boys opened it, looked inside, and froze. "Uh," Zeller started. He and Jimmy exchanged looks.

Price shrugged, "maybe he's just trying to mess with your head."

Alana tilted her head to the side, curious. "What is it?" she asked, moving forward. She peered in and caught to green eyes staring back at her.

"A kitten?" Jack looked a cross between relieved and annoyed.

"Oh look," Price reached his hand in and pulled out an envelope, "there's a card. For you my dear." He handed it to Alana, who was entirely unsure what to make of it.

She straightened her back as much as she could, took a deep breath, pulling in her energy to prepare herself for whatever psychological torture this was meant to be. She read out-loud:

 _"Alana,_

 _You said that Applesauce_ ("My dog," She interjected.) _seemed lonely and hasn't been doing well since you returned Will's dogs. Let's hope he enjoys-"_ Alana snorted and quickly scanned over the rest of the letter, keeping it to herself.

 _Lets hope he enjoys pussy as much as you._

 _-Margot_

Alana broke out into a huge smile. She couldn't help herself. She reached in and scooped up the little grey kitten. The little man was just bigger then the palm of her hand. "Hey there big guy," she cooed. He looked up at her, eyes full of curiosity and meowed.

She laughed. This was all so unexpected, and incredibly sweet and her coworkers were looking at her as if she had said she sprouted wings. Her eyes quickly darted around the room and she cleared her throat.

"Uh, it's," Alana tried to wipe the infatuation and embarrassment from her face and lowered her voice, "it's, um, from Margot. A gift." She realized at the lack of change in their expressions that non of them were aware that she had been seeing Margot for the past few weeks.

She realized this information wasn't going to go over well with Jack.

"Care to explain why the sister of arguably one of the most sadistic men on the planet and your patient is sending you," he paused and glanced down and the furry bundle in her arms, "gifts?"

The room was silent. Price and Zeller were mentally pulling out buckets of popcorn to watch.

Alana refused to break eye contact with Jack, showing resolve was her best line of defense. She chose her words carefully but they fell of her tongue as if she was completely unaware what each next word would be. "I am. Seeing her."

Jack took it in, shifting his weight as he processed his thoughts. "Seeing her." He repeated. His words started out slow but sped up as he went. "Do you not remember what happened with Hannibal or have you forgotten why exactly it is you carry around that cane Alana!"

"This is different Jack, she's been a victim of these crimes not a perpetrator-"

"It's different, is it? Didn't you say Hannibal was victimized by Will, and speaking of Will Grahm, isn't she the one who seduced him into getting her pregnant?"

"I'm not having this conversation with you Jack. My personal life is none of your business."

"It is my business when it's mailed to my office! Look," he added when he realized her wasn't going to get anywhere with her, "I don't care what you do on your own time. I just want you to be careful."

She nodded. "I am careful." Alana wasn't, on this at least. Sure she had the wool pulled from her eyes with Hannibal and that caused her to look further into things, to read things with a clearer view. Margot caught her off guard, and it appeared the young woman caught herself off guard as well. Alana looked down at the little green eyed cat her her arms and scratched behind his ears to a low rumbled purr. This was intended more for a little fun and stress relief, but she was really starting to fall for her.

Margot came in from the stables and started for the kitchen when her phone went off. A text. She knew it who it was from before she even took it from her pocket. She didn't know many people, and even less that would make an effort to contact her. It was Alana.

Nervousness and excitement bit up her spine. It didn't occur to her until after the fact that suddenly sending someone a pet cat was probably a bit too much. Most people didn't do that. A new pet was a lot to care for and, she realized after a quick and slightly panicked google search, expensive to the average household. So much for her tough, non-invested exterior.

She opened the message to a picture of Alana holding up the kitten for a selfie, her smile half obscured by his fur.

 **Alana:**  
 _Thanks for the gift!_

Margot smiled. Alana was so cute. She saved the picture to her phone.

 _What did you name him?_

 _ **A:**_ _Marshmallow_

 _ **M:**_ _Keeping with the food theme I see_

 **A:** _There's a bag of them in the cupboard_

 _Or was_

Another picture popped up. Applesauce was sniffing the kitten cautiously.

 _Applesauce approved!_

 _Haha look_

In this photo, Marshmallow was standing on Applesauce's back who was giving a big dog-grin.

 _ **M:**_ _That cat's a conqueror._

 _ **A:**_ _King of the kitchen!_

 _ **M:**_ _I'm having dinner too_

 _What're you having?_

 _ **A:**_ _Not sure, kinda ruined my appetite with those marshmallows_

 _maybe breakfast for dinner_

 _You?_

 _ **M:**_ _Avoiding that new chef? Mason brought in. So nothing with meat._

 _Breakfast for dinner sounds good rn_

Margot chastised herself for feeling like they were eating dinner together. Just because she decided to have similar meal as Alana and continued to chat with her through the meal did not mean this was a dinner date. Despite that, she felt elated the rest of the night knowing that Alana liked the present.

That light feeling turned to heavy embarrassment when Alana told her the story of how Marshmallow came to her the next day. She had retrieved what she figured was her home information from her brother's files and sent him that way, not thinking anything of it.

Still, she laughed along with Alana over the caution they had used and the tense surprise it ended up being.

Alana handed her a card. "For future reference, this is my home address."


End file.
